The BIPOC/ACCUTE First Person Interviews series is adapted from the CBC First Person series. It captures the stories and perspectives of BIPOC members of ACCUTE from different parts of Canada at different stages of their teaching, research, or graduate student careers. The interviews are presented in dialogue style to enable us to present participants’ stories and experiences in their own voices. We hope to encourage other BIPOC members of ACCUTE and future members to join the conversations. Please reach out to info.accute@gmail.com if you are are interested in joining the First Person BIPOC/ACCUTE series. We hope you enjoy reading our members’ stories and we look forward to hearing from you. — Chinelo Ezenwa, Member-at-large, BIPOC Caucus
Chinelo Ezenwa: It’s really nice to have you here, and I’m glad that you agreed to do this interview with us. My name is Chinelo. Please could tell us a little bit about yourself.
Mo Sharifi: Thank you for thinking of me, Chinelo, for this interview. I think it’s important for racialized people to speak their truths and to be heard. My name is Mo Sharifi. My pronouns are he and him. I am Persian Canadian. I am a PhD candidate at Western in the Department of English and Writing Studies. I am faculty at the School of Language and Liberal Studies at Fanshawe College. I currently teach Reason and Writing, and Professional Communication courses. I am also a member of the EDI and Anti-Oppression Task Force at Fanshawe College.
CE: My first question is: what are your biggest concerns about academia and English studies, as they relate to BIPOC members?
MS: One big problem that I have found is that whether we are being invited to the table or we are excluded, we are usually cast as the “unresolved Other.” One of the controversial things about inclusion is that if we think of it as including the Other, it still assumes the otherization of, for example, racialized folxs. That mindset and that barrier seems to be embedded not only in our systems but also in our minds. And because we are the ultimate Other, we are constantly trying to break down walls that feel like very thick, glass walls that are invisible to people who don’t have to deal with them, but are very real for us.
Secondly, there’s also this tendency to tokenize the racialized folx when it comes to boosting the brand of the institution and making the institution look good. So, we become the sacrificial lamb in that way. We get tokenized by institutions, for example, for EDI related positions. In those types of roles, it feels like we are punished by the system if we try to change the system, and at the same time we get criticized by our communities because it doesn’t seem like we’re doing enough. This takes such a toll on racialized academics. It impacts their mental health, performance, and productivity. The turnover rate is just mind-blowing because people burn out.
There are a lot of events, a lot of talks, books, articles, statements about EDI. But I keep wondering how and when we are going to move from words, beautiful words, to actual action. Within institutions, we talk about complicated things, like “cognitive imperialism,” EDI in theory, Eurocentrism, and so on and so forth. We talk about big oppressive systems, right? But is that enough? Should we stop there?
The question is what are you going to do after the big talk? When we get to changing things, many people say, “I don’t have any power.” But if you are here benefiting or participating in an institution, you have power and privilege to do something. The question is if we are willing to get uncomfortable in order to make a difference. As teachers, we have to constantly ask ourselves, “what is it that I’m teaching or reinforcing or reiterating through my research, my teaching, my practices, or even my silence that holds up the oppressive systems?” For example, I teach Writing, and one big question for me is how colonial the so-called “standard” grammar is. For example, when I am teaching Indigenous students, sometimes I ask myself, am I imposing colonial structures on them and expecting them to just follow my lead and not question anything? Another example is international students. Some of them are “second language speakers.” Some international students might have multiple degrees, but because of their accent or grammatical mistakes, they are treated (at times by professors) as if they’re not capable of critical thinking or even performing advanced tasks. And this is a big concern because it impacts that student deeply.
CE: Thank you so much for sharing these insightful observations. From a “BIPOC” perspective, if you could pick one area of focus for ACCUTE to work on, what would it be? And what has been ACCUTE’s biggest contribution?
MS: First of all, ACCUTE has so much potential, and one is in bringing people together and fostering a sense of community. And I find that happening to some extent during Congress every year. I see that the association takes care of registration fees for Indigenous and Black people, and that’s awesome. That said, I think there’s still a lot more that can be done. For instance, colleges, where many “BIPOC” happen to work, also have such a palpable presence in today’s educational scope. Colleges train thousands of students who go right into society after training, some of them to universities. But within ACCUTE, I see an under-representation of college teachers, and that is a missed opportunity for the association for sure. Teaching, as the focus of most colleges, is the very practical side of academia, and that is also not emphasized enough. In the coming years, I think it’s important to have panels and papers that focus on what we actually do/should be doing as teachers. Examining how we impact people’s lives in the classroom is as important as our theoretical studies. Teaching is so important because education could save lives, but it could also take lives – see the case of the residential schools in Canada. We must focus on teaching as well because we’re dealing with people’s lives. And the people we teach are going to impact other people as well. So, the amount of power that we mobilize as a teacher is immense. That’s one area that ACCUTE and English Studies can pay more attention to.
CE: For one of our fun questions, you opted to respond to this one: “what’s the most fun and/or the most critically relevant (“BIPOC”) book/movie you have read/seen recently?”
MS: There’s a TV series that I’ve been watching, and I’m absolutely in love with this. It’s called Reservation Dogs. It is about an Indigenous community, and the main characters are Indigenous teenagers. The series is about their hardships and how they go through life and redefine their relationships with their elders. What I particularly like about this show is that it shows their everyday lives, love, pain, relationships, and bigger questions. They laugh and cry and persist, make mistakes, fail, and get up again. They are okay to be who they are. I like that, because sometimes you watch movies or shows about racialized folx or Indigenous peoples that are all about suffering. And that’s legitimate – I recognize the importance of that. But we have to be careful not to define these peoples just in terms of pain, trauma, and shock. With these people in Reservation Dogs, you can see how their sense of humor and joy and resilience comes through even during hardships.
Also, there’s also a book called Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. This book hits the nail right on the head; that’s what I have to say about it! I think it’s useful for racialized folx and white folx. It even comes with a workbook too. The book shows that white supremacy is tangible and concrete in our everyday lives and practices. It really makes you think about how you can do things differently, rather than being complicit and complacent with the status quo.
CE: Thanks very much for the recommendation, Mo. I haven’t read that book, but I will make a point of reading the book and watching the series. This takes us to the final question. Do you have any words of wisdom for BIPOC graduate students, emerging scholars, or other members of ACCUTE?
MS: What I’m going to say will be from my experience. The first thing is to prioritize your health (especially mental health) and practise self-care. I’m sure you’ve heard this before and it sounds cliche, but it’s very true. Self-care is the first line of resistance. It is a radical act of advocacy. We racialized folx work and live in environments everyday where we take hits from different directions. So, we need not to forget to take care of ourselves. We need to have survival strategies. Don’t burn out to just prove yourself.
The other thing is wherever you go – school, workplace, elsewhere – know your allies. Graduate students, please go find and get to know your mentors. This is very important. It is not always preemptively put in place for us; unfortunately, we have to actively go out and seek our allies ourselves. We have to get to know who’s there for us, and we have to build our own safety nets.
To add to that, my next piece of advice is to recognize that our strength is in community and community care. I was an international student, and it was hard to find a community at first, but sometimes, it might just be your group of friends. I think caring for one another is part of our strength. The other thing is to remind ourselves that we are not just pain, trauma, and oppression. We are also joy and love. We are life. And it’s important to remember these because we are so much more than the role we are cast in. We should not be reduced to only the negative things.
Finally, try to understand the system that you are within so that you can help to dismantle the oppressions there. It shouldn’t be our concern alone, but unfortunately, that burden is often put on us. “Learning the system” doesn’t mean that you have to conform to it. It means you study the system in order to survive and thrive in it and in spite of it. An example is how we “code switch.” If you are a multilingual speaker, you often hear or are made to feel that your English isn’t good enough. In other words, you are told to censor yourself. But I have a proposition. If I don’t make myself smaller, maybe the other person will learn to make their world bigger. So, maybe it’s not the way you speak but the way they listen. You don’t need to make yourself smaller – let them make their world bigger!
Mo Sharifi (he/him) is an Iranian Canadian college instructor at Fanshawe college, Ph.D. Candidate in English at Western University, creative writer, and social justice advocate in London, Ontario. He is a member of the EDI and Anti-oppression Task Force at Fanshawe College and has worked closely with many EDID advocates at Western, Fanshawe, and within the London community.
